Innovation Of Ultrasonic Testing As An Effective Corrosion Monitoring Tool

Plant inspection is not only to uphold safety in terms equipment integrity but also to
optimize the cost of both operation and maintenance. Ultrasonic testing (UT) is a
common Non-destructive technique (NDT) to monitor corrosion rates of the
equipments. Current practices of UT only based on point thickness gauging technique to
obtain corrosion rates. The utilization of this method can be optimized by area based
thickness inspection. This innovation can produce accurate corrosion rate and reliable 3-
dimension model for Fitness-for-service (FFS) level 3 assessment by using fmite
element method. The objective of this project is to develop an effective corrosion
monitoring tools by innovating conventional A -scan ultrasonic testing (UT) thickness
gauging technique. A series of UT experiment with different corrosion profile will be
done. Actual corrosion rate ( CR act) as a control variable is measured by weighting the
mass loss of the sample. UT thickness measurement is applied by using the specified
method to get the corrosion rate ( CR .,..,) derived from area based inspection and
compared with current application ( CR point)- The corrosion profile also can be produced
and will be analyzed further by finite element analysis in FFS assessment The result
shows that UT innovation can produce high accuracy of corrosion rate as high as
intrusive mass loss coupon method compared with current practice. A precise 3-
dimension corrosion profile that resembles the actual condition as well can be developed
that is practical to produce an accurate FFS level 3 assessments. The conclusion is the
innovation of UT in monitoring corrosion has high potential to produce the reliable
result in cost effective operation.